Ot-TOBER, 1917 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



773 



te understand, and your last proposition is 

 very much like it. I shall have to con- 

 fess that I put the parenthesis in afterward, 

 forgetting that I was talking about the use 

 of the bee-escape, separating the supers 

 from the l)rood-chamber below. I agree 

 that in all probability the bees under such 

 circumstances might soon rob their own 

 honev and store it in the brood-combs. — 

 H. H. R.] 



P. 0. Chadavick says, p. 700, that beet 

 sugar is now refined so that there is no 

 chemical difference between it and cane 

 sugar. I think that has been the case for 

 years, yet is it not possible there may be no 

 difference chemically, and yet a difference*? 

 Is there any chemical difference between 

 diamonds and charcoal? At any rate the 

 British Bee Journal stoutly insists that the 

 difference between beet and cane sugar is 

 such that beet sugar should never be fed to 

 bees. For all that, I suppose tons of beet 

 sugar have been fed to bees with no bad 

 results apparent. [Chemically the two 

 sugars are one and the same, and practi- 

 cally we have never been able to detect any 

 difference. We have heard that some 

 housewives prefer cane sugar for canning. 

 But how are they or any one else to know 

 whether it is cane or beet unless they buy 

 from a beet-sugar refinery in the locality? 

 In this ease the sugar would be, unquestion- 

 ably, beet. — Ed.] 



L. E. "Webb has sent me a section of 

 " real mountain sourwood honey." It is 

 pronounced " good " to " delicious " by 

 those who have sampled it ; but the thing 

 especially interesting is that he says, " I 

 averaged over 75 lbs. per colony of pure 

 sourwood, getting 25 ets. per section or 

 bulk on our local market without even de- 

 livering it." [We have tested this same 

 sourwood honey. It is one of the finest 

 honeys we have ever eaten. Indeed, we see 

 no reason why it should not rank right 

 alongside of orange-blossom, white-clover, 

 basswood, mountain-sage, alfalfa, and other 

 fine table honej'S. It not only has a vei*y 

 mild and fine flavor, but a sort of tartness 

 that gives it a sort of lemonade suggestion. 

 We are not at all surprised that it should 

 bring 25 cents a pound at retail. — Ed.] 



Wesley Foster says, page 707, that 

 " Honey is used much more in cooking in 

 Europe than has been the ease in this coun- 

 try," and that consuniei-s pay more for it 

 there than here. It might be worth while 

 to go to some trouble to find out why this 

 is so. If Europeans use it in spite of the 

 high price, w^ould they not use it more if 

 the price were the same as in this countn'? 

 If so. one would naturally suppose it would 



be used more for cooking here than in 

 Europe. But it isn't. Now why? Who 

 will tell us? [Perhajis some of our sub- 

 scribers born and reared in Europe could 

 give us the " why " propounded by Dr. 

 Miller. However, when honey is relatively 

 cheap, and sugar liigh, the great baking con- 

 cerns of the country have used almost ship- 

 loads of honey. At the present time the 

 ratio of difference is such that these same 

 concerns will use invert sugar in place of 

 honey. — Ed.] / 



Among the' bad tilings of the war are 

 some good ones. Thousands — possibly mil- 

 lions — of young men are today reading the 

 Bible who would not have been doing so 

 but for the war, and the demand for Bibles 

 is without precedent. An item in a Chicago 

 daily says : 



The American Bible Society's presses have been 

 running sixteen hours a day since May 1, and about 

 400,000 Bibles have been printed, but it is still far 

 behind its orders, one of which is for 1,000,000 

 Bibles for the Y. M. C. A. for use in the army. 



C. L. Hill tells about grocers that paid 

 1/2 cent for beets which they sold for 8 

 cents, and wanted 50 per cent on honey, p. 

 594. Please don't judge all gTocers by 

 them. Marengo grocers are nice people. I 

 generally set the price they pay me, and 

 also the price they sell at, and they are satis- 

 fied with about 25 per cent profit. I'm 

 trying to sell all I can to them. 



Feeding for winter half sugar and half 

 water is advised against, p. 711, because the 

 hard work of reducing would exhaust too 

 much the vitality of the bees. Another rea- 

 son is that, if fed very late, the bees would 

 not be able at all to reduce the mixture to 

 the proper density. If fed early enough, 

 half and half would be all right; but no 

 doubt late feeding was in mind. 



" We PUT sheltered location first, and 

 winter packing second ; but both, for out- ' 

 door wintering, are essential." So says 

 Editor Root, p. 711, and it can hardly be 

 emphasized too much. Protection immedi- 

 ately touching the hive is needed; but what 

 counts most is the protection two feet or 

 ten feet from the hive; and possibly more 

 important is the protection many rods away. 



" Cover the jelly when cold with melted 

 paraffin, tipping the glass so that it comes 

 up a little on the side," p. 695. I've read 

 of an easier way: Put a lump of paraffin 

 in the glass, and pour upon it the hot jelly. 

 Perhaps Mrs. Puerden will tell us whether 

 this will work as well. 



Between 100 and 200 tons of dark 

 honey in San Francisco alone is used in 

 making sweet crackers or cookies, according 

 to a correspondent in The Western Honey 

 Bee. 



